The Daily Technician Report
Pre/Post Action
Table of Contents
- Mysterious Power Issues
- CSS tweaking
- First Public Entry
- Lost + Found
- Backroom cleanup
- Slow Finish
- Tuesday's Title
- Slow start
- Early early post
- WED EOD post
- The Countdown begins pre
- Throw away the fridge pre
- Monday Cool Down post
- Lenovo Laptop Screen Issue
- Monday Morning pre
- post/pre
- tags
- template and tags tech
- End of the Day tech post
- Another time tech
- Friday Atlast tech pre
Mysterious Power Issues
An Acer laptop came into the shop with multiple issues:
- cracked screen
- bad psu
- bad dc jack
- bad battery
- bad cpu fan
Whew! What a mess.
Hearing the squealing CPU fan as it booted to the desktop, the laptop was 'functional' during check-in.
Everything's normal
I received in the majority of the parts with little thanks to USPS. The DC jack and PSU were correct. I was happy.
The DC jack removal and installation with smoothly, and the new PSU looked great; very OEM; such wow.
Where it gets weird…
It is always good to do a test fit or a dry run, before full assembly. So I slapped the motherboard back into the palm and reattached the cables: display, io board, keyboard, etc..
I powered on the laptop and… blink… nothing. The power LED would flash on simultaneously with the keyboard backlight and then power off. It did this repeatedly until I cut the power.
Noticing, I had a not re-installed the RAM, I figured I had encountered what was an LED diagnostic code. But even after the RAM was snuggly put into it's slot, the power LED still did it's dance and laughed.
I ran my fingers across the green board, finding no hot spots or shorts. Interesting.
Troubleshooting the trouble
First things first, I removed the display, and keyboard backlight: still no repsonse.
Did a double take to make sure nothing was being shorted by the motherboard laying on the palmrest. Although the screws were not in, the screw holes lined up just fine. I was not worried.
Pulled out the voltmeter put into beeper mode and did some probing. Everything looked normal. It wasn't difficult to find places selling schematics, but nothing was free and most likely no boardviews would be available.
I decided to start from scratch before wasting anymore brain power. I removed the motherboard entirely from the palmrest and any remaining cables still attached. Leaving just the motherboard, the fans, power led board, and the io board that contained the power button. I went so far as the remove the USB-C shroud from the side ports.
There it was laid bare on the bench. I applied only the psu, no battery, and before I could press the power button, I heard some chips squeal. "Oh no, " I thought, but at that moment, the board sprung to life with fans spinning.
Powered it down, and applied the battery plus psu: same thing. All right! we are onto something. It is interesting that is turning on automagically, but we'll investigate that later, becuase once the device has powered down, it resumes normal on/off behavior with the power button.
I noticed that I had the power LED board plugged in upside down while I had everything out. I would correct once I begin my dry run one more time.
Culprit Found?
I had screwed the motherboard in to the palmrest, and reattached all the cables except for CMOS and the power LED board. Things were working smoothly until I properly installed the power LED board.
Once it was properly installed, the mysterious power issue arose once more. This time I noticed a component in the area of the power LED connector was getting very hot! As my finger recoiled from the heatshock, I pulled the power and began to let it drain. I held the power button down for 20 seconds, and removed the power LED cable. The mysterious power issue was now gone again, and now not so mysterious. Why would the LED board fail like that? What is this component that is gettin hot? I had found the culprit, but now I had more questions than answers.
CSS tweaking
Now that the bulk of this blog is online, I am doing what I do best and that is tweaking very insignificant things. Well, it is significant, because this site looks like poo on mobile. I am trying to fix that by adding some beautiful CSS kludge!
blog.css
Here are some of th tweaks, I have made to blog.css.
105: pre.src { 106: padding-top: 5%; 107: white-space: wrap; 108: overflow: scroll; 109: text-overflow: ellipsis; 110: } 111: 112: pre.src:before { 113: margin: 2%; 114: }
The pre.src configures the overflow to scroll inside the container rather than run off the side of the screen.
When hovering over source code, the name of the source language appears in the top right hand corner of that container. The pre.src:before allows that language name to not be cut off by adding some margin. This was a little tricky to find, because during org-publish there is CSS/js that is embedded directly into the published html file from org. This is what does the syntax highlighting, etc…
47: h2, h3, h4 { 48: font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; 49: color: black; 50: /* font-size: 32px; */ 51: font-size: 3vw; 52: }
Here, I am also trying out the vw for responsive fonts.
blog.html
2: #+HTML: <head><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"></head>
Adding the meta viewport tag allows me to add repsonsive goodness now. Yay.
First Public Entry
Here is the first public entry that has been uploaded to the WWW.
I have now set up a system that my journal entries can be uploaded (almost automatically) to my site.
A Nice Tour
Let me show you around the kludge. This is what I have so far:
- I have emacs' orgmode set up to plublish my project "blog"
- Inside the published directory, I have a very basic shell script that calls rsync to upload the project files
What I would like to add in the future:
- A cronjob to automate the rsync script.
It goes something like this:
C-c C-bcreate entryC-c C-e P pto publish project./upload_to_privette_dot_net.shto upload
Emacs Setup
In the beginning, I was simply exporting individual files locally. Now, I have configured org-publish-project-alist to do that for me:
0: ;; set projectalist for publishing projects in orgmode 1: (setq org-publish-project-alist 2: '(("blog" 3: :base-directory "~/Dropbox/Apps/MobileOrg/blog" 4: :publishing-directory "~/Dropbox/Apps/MobileOrg/blog/export" 5: :section-numbers nil 6: :table-of-contents nil 7: :exclude "entries.org" 8: :publishing-function org-html-publish-to-html 9: :style "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" 10: href=\"blog.css\" 11: type=\"text/css\"/>"))) 12: 13: ;; Adding keyword TOC_NO_HEADING to html export keywords: 14: ;;(push '(:html-toc-no-heading "TOC_NO_HEADING" nil nil t) (org-export-backend-options (org-export-get-backend 'html))) 15: (defun my-org-html-toc-no-heading (args) 16: "Avoid toc heading in html export if the keyword TOC_HO_HEADING is t or yes. 17: Works as a :filter-args advice for `org-html-toc' with argument list ARGS." 18: (let* ((depth (nth 0 args)) 19: (info (nth 1 args)) 20: (scope (nth 2 args))) 21: (when (and (assoc-string (plist-get info :html-toc-no-heading) '(t yes) t) 22: (null scope)) 23: (setq scope (plist-get info :parse-tree))) 24: (list depth info scope))) 25: 26: (advice-add 'org-html-toc :filter-args #'my-org-html-toc-no-heading) 27: 28: 29: setq org-capture-templates 30: `(("b" "Blog Post!" 31: entry (file "entries.org") "* %T %^{Title}\n %?" :prepend t))) 32: 33: (define-key global-map "\C-cb" 34: (lambda () (interactive) (org-capture nil "b"))) 35: 36: lobal-set-key (kbd "C-c C-b") 37: (lambda () (interactive) (find-file (concat org-directory "entries.org"))))
(Still need to figure out a better directory that Dropbox/Apps/MobileOrg/, I was using MobileOrg and BeOrg with minimal success. I have stopped using the apps for quite sometime now, but have not changed the structure. I could end up making a symbolic link to whatever new dir, just incase I ever want to tryout those mobile apps again. I think that would work.)
- Calling
C-c C-e P pwill publish the project to./export - The next function helps with CSS later on (i think?)
Org Capture
- Lastly, I have
C-c C-band/orC-cbset to create a new entry using org-mode's capture templates.
From the previous entry:
Something to remember for myself is that C-cb is the command to launch the org-capture window to perform an entry. While C-c C-b is to view the whole entries overview.
Writing an Entry
However, before we can publish a project, we need something to actually publish. So here we are… doing… stuff…
Uploading to privette.net
Here comes the easy part:
#!/bin/sh echo "uploading html..." rsync -vPu blog.html luser@privette.net:~/public_html echo "uploading css..." rsync -vPu blog.css luser@privette.net:~/public_html echo "upload to privette.net complete"
The script calls rsync twice:
- upload html
- upload css
I know it could be shortened, but I do not want to waste time with premature optimization just yet.
It's Showtime!
Now the blog is live. It is very small in size; one javascript function, and a handful of css. Truly a feat in modern engingeering.
Lost + Found
Hello World,
It has been awhile. I forgot about my log entry system I had setup. But that is typical. Something to remember for myself is that C-cb is the command to launch the org-capture window to perform an entry. While C-c C-b is to view the whole entries overview.
I was dipping my toes into elisp earlier, and now I think I may be able to tighten up the work flow around 'compiling' the entries overview and automagically putting that on my domain.
Backroom cleanup
Before arriving at work, I stopped off at the big blue store and purchased a few plastic tote boxes for the backroom.
- Big grey plastic
- keyboards (all types) and a few mouses
- 3 big clear bins
- DVR + A/V, Cables + PSU, Networking
- 3 small bins
- Right now just one is being used for serial / parallel cable storage.
What I want to do next is organize all the old tools and put them in the backroom.
TODO Put away old tools backroom
Slow Finish
Today was slow overall.
I was able to touch on all services. Tomorrow I will follow up with clients in the 'Waiting for Clients' queue.
I am beginning to lose focus. I think I spent too much of my time today firing up the old GTI Used Inventory Project. This could've been better spent getting the actual websites up.
Anyways, we have a good intro into the RMM field. A client would like to start out with 3 devices on our RMM Service with the possibility of adding more once they talk to their big boss. I am excited for this avenue to begin being profitable.
I spoke with one of my partners today about the EIDL loan, and they were wary of taking on any more debt. I showed him my reasoning for why having such a capital injection would be nice at such a low interest rate. I do not think he is completely sold, and I need to speak with the other partners before making a move.
More cleaning needs to be done!
I removed a lot of trash this morning, but as I look around I am still unhappy with the trash and the clutter. It must go! Tomorrow morning will be spent rectify this issue.
I also need to come up with a system of tackling different objectives. I really enjoyed my GTI_MR.html and need to re-incorporate that back into my schedule. As well as maybe an evening ritual variant, because documentation is awesome!!!
Tuesday's Title
More cleaning will be taking place today. Free up mental and spatial capacity. Clean up the room, and then explore the unknown.
We need to take a look at the EIDL information. There is a possibility that we are eligible for even more money, and who doesn't like more money? We definitely need a cash injection to get ourselves to the next level.
There are many things that need to be done, and I need to focus! Maybe sometime today do a round up of last week? Also go through org-agenda and see if we can start hacking away at the giant list.
On the service side of things today is not bad at all. A little bit tired, but still fully ready for the day.
TODO We also need to print out more brochures for up front.
Slow start
Today was a nice slow start to the beginning of the week. There was not much leftover from the week before, and nothing has really come in aside from one service today.
I was able to start cleaning up the backroom of the office, and make it look nice. There are so many empty boxes that we hang onto all the time. They take up so much space, and make us look like hoarders. It is nice to have a few boxes on hand, but defintely need to keep that quantity low.
I also fired up the Used Inventory Project and added a few more items. Most likely will need to do a stock take and see what exactly is in stock on the used inventory.
Eventually, the goal is to combine used and new inventory and leverage this across WooCommerce, eBay, and Amazon. We are almost there. I think I still need to bike shed some more.
Cleaning, and getting rid of dead weight will definitely help push that goal forward. Let's say the deadline will be the end of this month.
Aside from that, I am just trying to stay alert and ready for any opportunity. My stress level is near zero and my focus is high. After a nice relaxing 3 day weekend, I am confident that this will be another great week!
Early early post
Today will be a good day. We are closed tomorrow and Saturday for the 4th of July, and there is not much left for me to follow up on.
Thus far I feel that keeping up with journal has helped keep me on track, and formalize plans quicker. Keeping a better running tally.
TODO WooCommerce eBay integration
TODO clean up office
TODO organize lobby
TODO clean backroom
TODO get macs out on the floor
Today will be an upkeep / maintenance mode today. This will help set us up for the possible influx on Monday.
WED EOD post
Got a minute?
Today, once again, was a very productive day. I sit fat and happy letting the burger digest in my belly.
An epiphany today: leverage NinjaRMM for clients instead of recommending VNC. It would help offset our costs with the service.
I realized I have failed to get the RMM side up and running, and figure something like this would offset our costs that we have sunk.
The office is quite cool now-a-days, even in the dead of summer thanks to keeping the backroom closed. Up front used to be unbearable with a touch of stuffiness and glint of sweat between you and the clients/.
Besides a look around to make sure no services have been forgotten about, a nice quick clean of my office will do us right, and get us straight for tomorrow morning.
The Countdown begins pre
Happy Canada Day, and 3 days away from the 4th of July. I do believe it will be a nice and relaxing holiday weekend. To ensure it is the best experience, I am determined to get all these ducks in a row so going in Monday (Or delaying until Tuesday) will not be a hassle.
Things to do today:
DONE Assemble ASUS laptop with new parts.
Installation of the Plamrest was not a problem. However, the backcover was a little more tricky because the routing of the cables.
Everything is complete on the hardware side. I have now handed it off to another tech so Windows 10 can be loaded.
DONE Open up iPad and identify issue with home button
With isopropyl I was able to get the home button un stuck, however now it is a little bit more depressed making the click and double click functions possible but difficult. I will still open up the iPad.
This service just reminded me that I have a heating pad, and do not need to use my hot air rework station. I am using just the default setting where the pad will idle 60C for about an hour.
After using the heatpad for some time, I was not making too much progress removing the glass panel. However, it looks like the heating pad gave some sort of heat treatment to the home button. It no longer feels depressed, and has proper action.
DONE Follow up with MBA/MBP client
Client agreed to estimate. Will pick up tomorrow
DONE Call client about RAM upgrade has arrived
Called and left message
TODO Take a look a 'waiting on customer' list
- sony vaio
- imac
- mbp install
- mbp ins eval
Throw away the fridge pre
Good Morning
This morning the fridge was cleaned up. Plenty of overdue items were discarded to make room for some delicious sodie pops and water. If you didn't want to eat it 3 months ago, it should not still be here.
Today's agenda.
There are a couple priorities that need to be taken care of.
First and foremost is the diag of the MacBook Pro Keyboard/Motherboard issue. I will most likely dedicate an entry to this project as it is quite the conundrum.
Next thing on the list will be the heat press, and then following up with clients through out the day from yesterday.
WooCommerce ebay integration
When things slow down I want to take a more indepth look at this integration while also checking up on our sites in general. Also need to pull the trigger on payment processing; making sure that workflow goes a smooth as possible.
MacBook Pro MB/KB?
Turns out the issue was with the replacement keyboard that was installed. Which is quite strange because I do recall doing a test fit before fully installing the keyboard. In any case, that keyboard should have a lifetime warranty with the vendor.
Monday Cool Down post
It is now five o'clock and approximately 93 degrees outside.
Today was a very good start to the week, and a great Monday overall. Lots of big invoices were paid, and generally happy customers overall.
I am confident that this week will continue to be amazing.
Points of Improvement
HP Backcover Service.
No good deed goes unpunished.
- I attempted to save the client money by salvaging their bottom piece to their laptop by epoxying the stress cracks back together.
- There was a scratch on the new backcover.
I can understand about the scratch, and to some degree the bottom piece. However, in the future do what the customer wants. Defintely explain all options before hand, and give YOUR recommend opinion, but follow through with their wishes. If it is something incredibly stupid tell them you will not do it or charge them more for their idiocy.
I also admit that the laptop sat on the outshelf without a call to the client. That is poor customer service that needs to be improved.
TODO Webinar Ideas
ZOOM meeting / pre-recorded help videos on basic tasks. Client's can register and then watch the video (9.99?)
Newsletter / Quarterly webinar of the latest stuff in tech.
Other
- Return RAM to UPS
- Follow up with FLIR client
- MacBook Pro Motherboard Diagnostics (VERY IMPORTANT)
Lenovo Laptop Screen Issue
Laptop displays externally; no image internally. LCD Does not look physically broken. Open up and determine if it is the LCD or the cable is unplugged.
- LCD cable connector on the motherboard side was OK
- LCD cable connector on the LCD side was not flush.
After reseating the cable on the LCD panel side, image displayed.
Monday Morning pre
Good Morning,
Today is going to be a good day. Already feeling productive!
A couple of new things today that came in during the weekend.
- Microsoft Surface Broken Screen
- FLIR DVR PSU issues
- MagSafe 2 PSU Return
There are also quite a few tickets from last week that need to be resolved. Here is just a sample:
- Heat Press Diag
- Keyboard Replacement / Diag
- MacBook Pro TTB (Check touchpad)
FLIR DVR ISSUES
Diagnostics
Blinkenlights when powered on and case removed. The PSU has two leads:
- P1: 52V
- P2: 12V
- When P2 is measured unconnected to the PCB it reads ~ 10V.
- When P2 is measured connected to the PCB it reads ~ 6V.
- When P2 is measured unconnected to the PCB it reads ~ 0.03V
- When P2 is measured connected to the PCB is reads ~ 0.03V
PSU P/N: DPS-200PB-185 B FLIR NVR M/N: DNR408P0
Available on ebay $57.99 (RETAIL: $86.98)
With just the internal PSU plugged into the main board (04011364A) the draw is still only about 6V. (Even with the POE board installed)
Using our bench top PSU I am able to feed ~ 12V 5A into the P2 Connector. The board turns on and I see the FLIR logo. However it does restart with the POE board plugged in (80146168; 21-511; PA4MR032W00854). With the POE board unplugged it gets to the main viewing screen and then warns about missing HDD (which is okay, there was no hdd at check in)
At the very least we will need a new PSU. We also may need a new POE board. Unfortunately the POE board does not seem to be available from vendors. Follow up with Garret / Nathan?
Surface Pro
Client declined quote.
MagSafe 2 PSU
Confirmed bad. tested on two client machines, also KILL-A-WATT read 0A.
MacBook Pro TTB
Track pad does not click. May need replacement or the Screw Button underneath the battery needs to be replaced.
Offered $100. Even with new touchpad, refurb'd on ebay this model sells for $300.
post/pre
On tags, for now I will keep it simple, and use only post/pre tags since this is daily technician report after!
As stated before, I am quite comfortable with this setup and it's ease that I can capture all the way through publishing.
Which leads me to my second phase of setting up some scripts to take the exported html and load it up to our servers.
All in due time. More work needs to be put off first!
tags
So tags are possible with minimal effort. I can add tagging to the capture template, but for now I am just doing it by hand C-c C-c when I am in entries.org
The only issue I see at this point is when specific tags are selected
#+INCLUDE: "./entries.org" :only-contents t #+SELECT TAGS: tech
It removes the left column with the links to individual entries. I feel there may need to be more setup involved with specific tag blogs.
template and tags tech
I have now updated the capture template once again to reflect the time as before. I also want to add tagging to have entries be a catch for multiple blogs! :tech: :personal: :etc:
Thinking more of a stream. My own RSS feed? Ha!
End of the Day tech post
An hour out from the closing bell, and I am feeling more invigorated. I was able to get through more work than I expect with the help of some nagging (unaware) from clients.
I am the master of bullshitting, and making appearances of constant work, while I edit emacs config some more. With a little luck, I can pull a lot of shit outta my ass, but that's how it always goes. The shit comes out of the ass.
Yesterday and today, more work was put in today by people that are not me. I realize that. I must capture these moments so I can reflect later on in times of doubt.
Small steps can turn into great strides. Stay focused. Be aware when you are not at full capacity and adapt. Communication is key.
Another time tech
Here is just a test without the full time inside of it. Is it worth it to do just the date or would the time be acceptable aswel?
Friday Atlast tech pre
Today is Friday, and I am finally feeling a little bit better.
I do not know why I have been feeling so sluggish. My excuse is that daylight savings time is changing soon, and my body is already getting used to it. Not a good excuse I know, but atleast it's something I can pass the blame on to.
This type of burn out has snuck upon me, and does not want to let go. I can feel it affecting not only work, but also my personal / home life. Recently, when I come home I am not in the mood to do anything. I know there are tasks that need to be done, but I sit on the couch and stare at my phone, or sit on the couch and stare at the tv.
I do not enjoy this feeling, and I wish it wasn't so. The ability to rise out of the murky depths is difficult, especially with a poor mental attitude. And so that is what I am trying to break by writing this all out.
I know I have been dodging duties to fiddle around with my stupid emacs setup, but it is the only thing right now that is some what pleasant yet difficult to do.
It is not fun to have machines come in that I am unable to fix, and they keep bringing them back. It is an unrelenting torrent of shitty computers that I am unable to conquer. That is what makes me sad. It makes my worth as a technician quite low, and corrupts morale. I keep telling the clients that I am still working on it, but behind the scenes I don't have a clue. Sometimes, I am pulling my hair out and screaming at a motherboard; othertimes, it has not even left the shelf I initially put it on after check-in.
I am coming to the realization that I am putting to much effort into the amount coming back. What needs to change is this ratio of labor and profit. I want to make big changes for myself and the others at this company, but end up getting swamped by the little things that happen day to day, and carry over week to week. A slow burn of bullshit that is easily rectified with the right mindset, but at this time I am either unable or unwilling to do so.
I am fully aware that doing nothing RARELY fixes anything when it comes to a positive mental attitude. I say this yet I do not fully understand. I am ok with letting things slip through the cracks, and being motionless. This inertia evential catches up and is a pain to break out of. Maybe that is what I am feeling right now. The carving of the stone; a new mark from the chisel pains and tires the art and the artist.